Chadar Row to Crackdown: Claims, Counterclaims & the Real Story of Nagpur Riots

Nagpur riots: Chadar burning claims, a mob lynching, police brutality — The Quint reports on 5 key narratives.

The Nagpur Narratives: The 17 March Riots, Political Agendas & Social Aftermath

(Photo altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Prajjwal Kumar

A narrow lane in Nagpur's Chitnis Park, with a majority of Hindu residents, was quieter than usual. At the start of the lane, on the main road, a few policemen had been stationed in front of some houses. A knock on the first few doors proved futile, with most expressing a similar sentiment — "Je jhala tey jau dya, aata tyachyabaddal nahi bolaycha" (let bygones be bygones, let's not speak of it anymore).

Most pointed to the house of the Shirkes, just 50 metres inside the lane. It was an understanding among the residents that if any mediaperson wanted to talk about the communal riots of 17 March, Datta Shirke would speak on everyone's behalf.

Just four weeks ago, on 17 March, Shirke, along with several other families from the lane, had gathered at the iconic Shivaji Maharaj Statue Chowk — just 200 metres away — to witness the Shivaji Jayanti celebrations, as they do every year. But something unexpected happened.

A present-day visual of the lane in Chinis park (left) and the same spot where a car was set ablaze on 17 March. 

(Photo: The Quint)

A group of locals from the Muslim community came face-to-face with the police at around 7:00 pm and resorted to sloganeering. As the police dispersed them after much altercation, many allegedly vandalised shops in the nearby lanes, pelted stones at homes and restaurants, and clashed with the police.

This happened just a few hours after an effigy of Aurangzeb was burned by protesters from the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), along with a green chadar that was claimed to have holy Quranic inscriptions.

The lane in Chitnis Park where Shirke lives was one of the worst hit, with TV news channels standing in front of a charred car for several days following the unrest. The stains of black smoke still remain on the wall of the house it was parked by.

For decades, Hindus and Muslims at Shivaji Maharaj Chowk coexisted peacefully — celebrating festivals, running businesses, and sharing meals. But the 17 March violence unravelled that delicate fabric.

Since the communal clashes, a man beaten by a mob has died, police crackdowns have intensified, and many are still being arrested by the Nagpur police.

Over five days, The Quint travelled across the violence-hit pockets of Nagpur — from Chitnis Park and Gitanjali Chowk to Bhaldarpura — to piece together five dominant narratives that now define a city still reeling from its darkest hour in recent history.

Narrative One: The Burning of the Chadar and a Spark Ignited

The chain of events began around 11:30 am on 17 March when Bajrang Dal and VHP activists, as part of a state-wide campaign, staged demonstrations demanding the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb in Sambhaji Nagar. As the protest escalated, an effigy of Aurangzeb was burned — along with what appeared to be a green chadar bearing Quranic inscriptions.

Visuals from the VHP-Bajrang Dal protests from 17 March, before Aurangzeb's effigy was burned.

(Photo: PTI)

Congress leader Anees Ahmad, pointing to the alleged Quranic verses in the video, said: "This is the aayat which you can see here, four lines of aayat is there. Here, there's the name of God. It's surah written in Arabic. It is clearly seen in the video that a Quran Aayat is burned. It may be unintentional, but it happened."

Soon after the protests by the Hindu right-wing bodies, the police filed an FIR at 3:09 pm invoking sections of 'unlawful assembly'. A senior police officer, however, told The Quint that relevant sections were added later that evening after the "possible nature" of the chadar was brought to their attention by Fahim Shamim Khan, leader of Minorities Democratic Party (MDP), and his supporters at the Ganeshpeth police station.

Khan, who is now one of the prime accused of the riots, was requested to not escalate tensions, the police said. The videos of the VHP protests, however, were viral in Nagpur by this point.

But many from the Muslim coummunity believe that the riots may not have flared if the police had taken immediate action against Hindu protesters.

"The police should have taken immediate action. No such action was taken immediately after burning. If they would have arrested the Bajrang Dal people and kept them at the police station, these people who were protesting would have calmed down. But unfortunately, some miscreants did what they should not have done," Ahmed said.

Anees Ahmed, Congress leader.

(Photo: )

Mohd Awais Hasan, an activist, explained: "Muslims were enraged only because of Qalam-e-sharif chadar. But whatever happened should not have happened. Two religions should not fight each other."

The Quint spoke to Nagpur Police Commissioner Dr Ravinder Singhal on 26 March, who claimed that it is unclear what is inscribed on the green chadar.

"It is not possible to see anything so nobody has been able to decipher it. We don't have a part of the chadar also. And I am not an expert to see only on the screen whether it was so or wasn't so. The respective IO will look into it, it's a part of the investigation," Singhal said.

Narrative Two: When Protests Turned to Riots

By 7:00 pm, slogans were raised near the Shivaji statue, and violence soon spread across six localities in a 2-km radius. Chitnis Park, Ganjipeth, Gitanjali Chowk, Bhaldarpura, and Hansapuri — all areas with tight-knit Hindu and Muslim communities.

"They entered the lane and destroyed all cars and other vehicles. They were also carrying swords and knives. By the time the police came, the crowd here had swelled and they hurled stones at the policemen too. When the police backed off, they started hurling petrol bombs and tried to burn cars," Shirke recalled.

Datta Shirke, resident of Chitnis Park, Nagpur

(Photo: The Quint)

"They burned two cars and two-wheelers. In one of our neighbouring houses, a car was set ablaze and the window caught fire too. The old woman there was found unconscious because of the fire. This is the first time that they entered the gullies, broke things, and hurled stones, scared people and abused them, and resorted to sloganeering," Shirke alleged.

(Photo: PTI)

Harshal Ghate, whose family owns a restaurant at the Chitnis Park Chowk, recalled how stones were pelted at the glass windows.

"What initially started as a protest turned into long-lasting violence. It began at Shivaji statue and spread to Gandhi Gate, Ram Galli, Chitnis Park, Gowlipura, and then Hansapuri," Ghate said.

Narrative Three: The Mob That Killed Irfan Ansari

At about 11:00 pm on 17 March, Irfan Ansari, a welder by profession, was abandoned by his auto driver right about here while he was on his way to the Nagpur Railway Station.

According to the police, he was caught between two mobs of Hindus and Muslims and was brutally thrashed. Brought to the hospital in a critical condition, Ansari was hit in the head with rods and had stab wounds on his back. He succumbed to the injuries five days later.

The first arrest made in his death is of one Santosh Gaur and a second man has been identified as Ansari. But even as the police is in the process of identifying more people from the mob that killed Irfan, he left a behind a grieving family with too many unanswered questions.

Uzma (right), wife of Irfan Ansari.

(Photo: The Quint)

"We got a call at 1:00 am that he has been admitted to Mayo Hospital to tell us that he had met with an accident. He was going to Itarsi for work. We had no idea of the riots that were underway when he left the house," his wife Uzma recalled.

Huzaifa, Irfan's nephew, said that the family expected clarity from the police on the arrested accused.

"Of the two accused who have been arrested, one is a Muslim. My question is, why would a Muslim kill another Muslim? In his statement, my uncle said that he was attacked by a mob. One of the accused that has been arrested is a cancer survivor. I saw him in court, one side of his face is completely dysfunctional. Why would someone like that attack him? This does not make sense," he said.

But while the family demanded justice for Irfan, they also pointed fingers at the political narratives on Aurangzeb's tomb leading up to the riots.

"If you want to take action (on the tomb), you have the powers to do so. If the police would have acted immediately (after VHP protests), the riots would not have happened that night and our uncle would have been alive," he said.

Commissioner Singhal told The Quint that there will be more clarity on the two arrested accused as the probe advances, and that more people who attacked Ansari will be identified from available visuals and CCTV footages.

Narrative Four: The Online Crackdown

With over 13 FIRs filed, the Nagpur Police has set up multiple investigative teams — not just for ground-level violence but also for social media activity.

The first FIR filed by the police mentioned Fahim Shamim Khan's role in detail, booking him with 51 other individuals.

Among the first was an FIR by the cyber cell was also invoked Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita — a newly introduced law akin to 'sedition' in the formerly used Indian Penal Code (IPC). In one of the FIRs, at least 17 social media handles were named for sharing videos or captions allegedly inciting violence.

Mohd Jamal's brother Shahzad, who ran a social media platform called NNTV, has been booked for 'sedition'.

(Photo: The Quint)

A second FIR, that mentioned six other social media handles, included local YouTuber Mohammad Shahzad of NNTV. The captions on his videos allegedly read, ‘kalma ki chadar ko jalaya gaya' and 'police ne jabrun lathi maari.’

"The police said that because the video went viral, and he has about 80,000 to 1 lakh followers, people were incited to carry out riots. When the police took him away on 17 March, they did not say anything. They said that a senior officer has called him. They checked his mobile phone and he was questioned. They kept saying that they will let him go after questioning. At about 11 pm, they said that an FIR has been lodged against him," his brother Mohd Jamal, also a local politician, told The Quint.

"Then, they gave us a notice about the action and the FIR. He was issued a notice in which Section 152 has been invoked. It was not there in the original FIR," he said.

Jamal raised questions on selective targeting:

"This is a way to snatch people's freedom of speech. When videos like these are posted, people share them or like them. They are being acted upon. You take a look at platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, people of all communities share all kinds of videos."

Lohit Matani, DCP, Cyber Cell, explained what kind of social media handles and YouTube channels are being booked.

“We are not taking action against those who shared that video, actions being taken against those who incited people to take to the streets; say with specific inflammatory captions. At the same time the remaining who spread misinformation like the chadar was burned in the presence of police and they let them, etc," Matani told The Quint.

"Some accused specifically edited videos and incited people to pelt stones, they are being acted against. The cyber cell is not investigating videos specifically to ascertain what was written on the chadar, that is a matter of a separate FIR," Matani said.

Narrative Five: Claims of Police Brutality in Bhaldarpura

In Bhaldarpura, an old locality, claims of police excesses have surfaced.

Bushra Sheikh had seven members of her family arrested from their house, who she claimed had assembled to participate in a mourning ritual following her father's death 10 days before the riots. The family alleged that while the were being arrested from the house, they were brutally thrashed by the policemen, leading to her younger brother losing vision in his left eye.

"It was 10 days since my father's death on 17 March. There was a 10th day ritual. We had no clue what was happening outside. We didn't know what had happened in the afternoon. They were firing tear gas shells to disperse the crowds. But all of a sudden, the police and officers came upstairs and started breaking doors and windows and entered the house," Bushra alleged.

Seven members of Bushra Sheikh's family have been arrested following the 17 March riots.

(Photo: The Quint)

"They didn't talk or explain, they just started detaining men. They said they only wanted to question the men. We had no objection to that. But while they were taking them away, they beat them up, my younger brother was beaten so badly that he lost his eye. They were beaten till the last spot; they dragged them till the end while beating them up," she claimed.

Several other families in the Bhaldarpura locality made similar allegations:

"The police took my four sons forcefully. Lot of policemen came on the first day and they asked us to open the doors but we did not. They left that day but returned on the second or third day and detained me and all four of my sons. They let me go but slapped my children with cases," said Mohd Zakir Khan who runs a grocery store in the locality.

In one of the press conferences after the riots, Dr Singhal had addressed the allegations of police brutality. "I cannot say if this has happened. There are videos on record. If somebody is saying so, they have all the right to say it. We are doing our work," he said.

Amid claims, counterclaims, and narratives, the city is crawling back to routine. But trust remains fractured.

"We always lived with brotherhood. We would attend their weddings and they would attend ours. We would celebrate both Holi and Eid. They may have attacked vehicles, but our hearts are scarred," Shirke said.

Meanwhile, Irfan's family said that the future of his daughter, who wishes to be a doctor, needs to be safeguarded more than ever.

"When a person dies, the family dies with them. And the repercussions are on the society as a whole," Huzaifa said.